What does the world need from you?

November is a time when a lot of college students are thinking about what comes next: what major to declare, what summer plans to make, what will happen after graduation. It’s a good time to think about what we want and what we can contribute. It’s a good time to reflect on the question, What does the world need from you?

Our conversation guide this month focuses on this question. It was created with help from our friends at Work on Purpose, a project of the good folks at Echoing Green. They have over two decades of experience identifying and nurturing some of the world’s great social entrepreneurs—people who have figured out what the world needs and what they uniquely have to give in response.

Tell us how you would spend $500 to live the question “What does the world need from you?” Would you attend a conference on an issue you care about such as poverty or injustice? Would you buy a train ticket to a city you feel called to serve and interview people about their needs? Or perhaps you would go to a monastery and learn how monks live the question in their daily lives? Learn about the official rules for the contest in our blog section below.

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Take your conversation into the world

The world needs me to come to school everyday to facilitate the learning of the children. As a teacher, I need to sustain the passion and commitment to deliver good instruction to the children for them to learn at the maximum level with high regards to values.

To help train 20 women on how to make and use Moto stove which help to:1. Reduce indoor cooking smoke to a minimum.
2. Mitigate air-born soot, which is responsible for 5-10% of man-made global warming.
3. Reduce deforestation by increasing stove efficiency; villages reported using roughly 1/3 less wood than with traditional stoves.
4. Sequester carbon (in the form of biochar) within the soil.
5. Improve the soil structure and drought resistance.
6. Improve the financial situation and living conditions of rural populations.
Biochar stoves provide villagers with the opportunity to earn extra money. A Moto stove can produce one Kilo of charcoal for each three Kilos of wood fuel, both of which sell for 35 KSHS in parts of Western Kenya. The stove thus produces a valuable product that can be used by the owner for further cooking, for sale, or for soil improvement. Wood that a villager would have burnt anyway for cooking can thus provide further benefit without extra cost, other than the stove. Ideally, farmers will bury the biochar in the soil and reap the long term economic benefits of bigger and healthier crops, but whatever the user chooses to do, the economic and health benefits of producing biochar with cooking stoves are significant.

We have a world to rebuild, and we should do so ethically, sustain ably, and peacefully. On the other hand, we have a lot of unemployed and underemployed peace studies and related majors students. This does not make sense. How do we bridge the gap between the world's needs and "peace students" talents? As the director of the Student Peace Alliance, I am fundraising to participate in the third THNK session and work with designers, social entrepreneurs, and socially conscious investors to create a scalable program that will help address this non-sense situation.

At Ohio State, we have been working with the Undergraduate Student Government. We encourage leadership to consider goals of their agenda before making decisions, and to understand the ramifications for a very diverse group of students. This small step ensures more cohesion on campus.

With graduation in May, I have been trying to approach this question to figure out what my next steps should be. I think that the world needs my curiosity. The constant desire to inquire and learn is important because it allows people to understand each other and the world around them. Curiosity has allowed me to grow in the most meaningful ways, through relationship-building, conversation and action. I think that the world needs the willingness to pursue curiosity from more people. If we are all self-motivated to learn and share, we can become a more connected world with a stronger sense of respect for one another.

I love these answers! Remember, you can win $500 by telling us how you would the money to help answer the question "What does the world need from me?" http://workonpurpose.echoinggreen.org/questions/what-does-the-world-need-from-you

The world needs me to keep an open mind and an open heart in order for me to give in more tangible ways. If I love what I'm advocating for, the love I feel for the cause that I'm providing for will make my success that much more important and valuable, both to myself, and the world.

The world needs me to change people's perspective of what's possible for marriage. I believe God is raising up a new generation of married couples to change the view of marriage in popular culture. My wife & I are currently changing people’s perspective of what’s possible for marriage by connecting like minded married couples who share the same vision, values and virtues for marriage and then developing a lasting relationship among them (“Marrying Married Couples”). Our community is called The Ring Club. www.theringclubmmc.com

As former Ambassador to China and one time Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman once said, "There are people who need friends and others who need hope, reach out your hand and give them your heart--you will be better for it!". For me--for Jesse Nathaniel Civello this quote epitomizes what the world NEEDS from not just me but truly ALL of us! Personally, I am going to use the skills that G-d has blessed me with to bring about positive change in this world. I will always strive to be a shoulder and ear for those who are hurting to lean upon and just vent. You never know how the simplest mitzvah and gesture can change someones day and possibly their life. We have to be open to being "needed" by the world. We need to be open to make positive changes in our world and I think it all starts from within. We need to be spiritually ready to go into the world and use our assets to bless others. I dont really really view the world as "needing" me. It's more of mutualism than anything. We all need each other and until we ALL realize that I don't think any "need" will truly be met.

The world needs me to be kind, inclusive and intentional. This Q reminds me of wise words from Daniel Pink: "Seeking purpose is part of how we're wired—by doing something that endures, we prove that we were here, that we mattered. Clare Boothe Luce once told John F. Kennedy, 'A great man is one sentence. Abraham Lincoln's was "He preserved the Union and freed the slaves." What's yours?' If you can't seem to access your purpose in life, I've found the best place to start is with Luce's question."

This question reminds me of the Howard Thurman quote: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
To me, reading this quote is like devouring a piece of delicious candy, only to find it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth hours later. At first taste, the quote is nothing but sweet: "Yes, we must come alive!" Then the bitter aftertaste settles in: "But as members of an interconnected world, isn't serving one another, even when it isn't pretty or easy, also imperative?"
The trick is finding ways to serve that also make you come alive as often as you can, but when that isn't possible, how do you choose which need to prioritize?

The world needs for me to be a good citizen. To make a difference and enlighten others. I believe that my place in this world is to show others what my heart can do and what changes can truly make. One person can change this world. As Walt Disney once said, "Its kind of fun to do the impossible."